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  1. S

    Is it normal for the well pressure tank to lose its air pocket?

    I grew up on well water but we never had the problems I've been experiencing for the past 7 years in this house, because my childhood home had a bladder tank. This house has just a 120gal tank with no bladder. Water enters the bottom, water leaves the bottom; air gets trapped in the top, with...
  2. S

    Basketball goal attachment

    It's not really an "attachment" at this point, but trying on the idea. The kids want to play basketball in the fat end of the road, but last time I moved the goal out there, heavy winds (we get a lot of those) knocked it over. I want it way heavier than filling the plastic base with sand/water...
  3. S

    What to do about a rusty frame?

    My daughter and I are fixing up an old truck (91 Chevy S10) and the frame is rusty. We've got the bed off right now but no plans to remove the cab. I can't wrap my head around the rust on the frame. It's all surface rust, nothing bad at all, but it's the ENTIRE frame. Every square inch of it...
  4. S

    I built a big saw for slicing up a forklift, or anything else on earth.

    I built this janky monstrosity out of unistrut and I call it the BAWS. It's a Diamond Wire saw and uses surplus (new/expired) wire from the semiconductor industry. They would have used it to dice up silicon ingots into wafers in the manufacture of chips, or to slice up lab-grown sapphire into...
  5. S

    I couldn't access TBN from 4G, now I can

    A bit of positive feedback... if you did something to the server recently, thank you. For several weeks I've been unable to access TBN from my phone while on 4G. Only TBN, every other site worked fine. I get on WiFi, it would work just fine. Tried deleting cookies, clearing caches, etc...
  6. S

    Can a mutt drag a 200lb roll?

    I went behind my shop today and found that someone had tried to make off with a 12ft roll of road fabric I had back there. At least that was my immediate theory. They got it about 15ft and gave up. Looks they had intended to bring it out through that opening where the fence meets the lean-to, at...
  7. S

    DIY pickup bed cover that will carry a load.

    UPDATE 8/1/21 The finished product is in post #64. I got a new truck a couple of weeks ago, after years of being stuck in an SUV. There was a couple of things I got used to with the SUV: having a "safe" place to store my tools when traveling for work, and being able to transport pallets of...
  8. S

    UV stable 5gal buckets?

    I make my chicken feeders out of home depot 5gal buckets. Problem is they don't last more than a year before they start falling apart from being in the sun. I'd like to get a few more years out of them. Where can I find buckets that won't degrade from sunlight? Food grade would be ideal too. I'm...
  9. S

    How to force regen mode?

    I'd like to force regen mode on my XR4140 but I can't remember how to do it, the sticker that used to tell me how has crumbled away the vital information, and I can't find how to enter forced regen anywhere in the manual. Who knows how to do this?
  10. S

    Is this what water in diesel looks like?

    I filled it with diesel from a can I filled 6-8 months ago. The can has sat under the lean-to next to the tractor all "winter," out of the elements but no indoors. It may or may not have been sealed well, not sure. I was running it for 30 min, then filled it, then ran it 30 more minutes, did...
  11. S

    How much can raccoons eat?

    I have 6 hens who mostly free range but they have 24/7 access to a feeder and it takes them about a month to go through 50lbs of feed. I went on a 1-week vacation and took my dog with me, had a friend come over in morning and evenings to let the chickens in/out. I filled the feeder with a 50lb...
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    What range of HP does 1-3/8" 6-spline PTO cover?

    I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's all over the map, but generally speaking, if someone says they have a 1-3/8" 6-spline PTO without saying anything else about their tractor, what size/HP bracket do you assume their tractor is in?
  13. S

    Is it safe to experiment with adding exhaust to a tier 4 diesel?

    I'm about to get a PTO generator for my LS XR4140 for whole-home power backup and since the tractor will be parked near (but not too near) the house during this operation I want to see if there are any options to make it quieter. Preferably something that can be bolted on and taken off easily...
  14. S

    Disappearing Amazon orders?

    Anyone else experienced your Amazon orders just disappearing as if you never placed them? It's happened to me many times in the past couple of months. At first I thought I was losing my mind. I know I placed that order, and when it hadn't shown up for several days, went to check on it, it's not...
  15. S

    Buying land with oil & gas operations on it?

    I'm looking to buy some land and there's one property I'm interested in, but it's on an oil field. The price is very good compared to other properties around the area and it has been on the market for a while. Makes me hesitant. Good, reasonably priced land sells within days around here. The...
  16. S

    Ever encounter a coral snake?

    I've known the maxim "red & yellow kill a fellow, red & black you're OK Jack" for as long as I can remember. I've come across so many of the coral snake imposters over the years that I began to think maybe the coral snake is a myth. Well it isn't, I learned. My daughter went out one morning...
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    Driving habits of rural folk

    I grew up in the country and that's where I learned how to drive. I drove predictably like a teenage male, and everyone on the road was too slow for me. Then I went off to the military, city driving in places across the country and the world. After I got out I lived in the city for about 7 years...
  18. S

    Who makes a work truck with creature comforts?

    5/6/2021 NOTE: This is an old-ish thread and I resurrected it in post # 163. I've been back and forth about buying a new truck for a couple of years and I think I might be approaching a point where it could be construed as "financially responsible" for me to finally pull the trigger. What I...
  19. S

    Buggy transaxle doesn't like to shift out of gear

    I have an American Landmaster Bulldog 300, equipped with Dana/Schafer H12-FNR transaxle. The forward and reverse are a function of the transaxle. The transaxle does want to shift out of forward or reverse, into neutral, if any torque is on it. I can shift into neutral just fine if I am coasting...
  20. S

    CVT trouble/operation

    I have purchased a used American Sportworks Bulldog 300 UTV and promptly swapped out the 277cc Kohler engine for a Predator 670cc engine. The previous owner had the engine scooted back pretty far and the belt was very loose, appearing as an oval when the engine was off (this will come in later)...
  21. S

    Any hope to refurb this compressed air dryer?

    I got a free Quincy QRHT-25 compressed air dryer, not working. I opened it up and found that the pressure switch going to the refrigerant compressor on one of the refrigerant lines had come apart and dumped all the refrigerant out. A new pressure switch costs $300 and I don't want to invest that...
  22. S

    How to removed crusty ospho?

    I'm trying to save my mower deck, it had a poor powder coating I didn't realize, has been aggressively rusting. I needle gunned, wire-wheeled, and applied ospho, let it set overnight and now I have crusty bubbly black patches everywhere. I don't want to paint over that. I tried blasting it off...
  23. S

    How much abuse can a slip clutch take?

    I'm building my own PTO attachment and it's going to have a LOT of rotating mass/inertia. I don't know exactly how much yet but let's say it's a 500lb spinning drum the size & shape of a forklift propane tank. My tractor has an electric PTO clutch, ON or OFF, no in-between; I would prefer to...
  24. S

    Convert wounded GM 6.0 into a compressor?

    I want a whisper quiet high volume, high pressure air compressor. Something like this or a pair of these. Since it's just a want, not a need, I can't justify spending the money (nor do I even have the money). And since I like building things, I thought maybe I would make one. Before I go...
  25. S

    Are my pickles soggy because I used 9% vinegar?

    First time ever canning or pickling anything, last week I made 2 jars of pickles from "straight-8" cucumbers from my garden. Some sources say it's not a pickling cucumber, others say it's dual purpose, just fine for pickling. I've read plenty of reviews, people saying they made great pickles. I...
  26. S

    Any apocalyptic way to kill nutgrass?

    I'm installing a 24ft above ground pool in my yard and I'm paranoid about the nutgrass. I have lots of it. I've already excavated a flat spot for it; at the deepest about 8" and at the shallowest about at grade, maybe 1" below. The internet says you need to dig 14" below nutgrass to ensure you...
  27. S

    "Field find" SPYDER rough terrain forklift. Looking for info on it.

    I've been driving past this derelict machine in a pasture off the side of the road every day since I moved here 3 years ago. It wasn't until I drove past it on the tractor going a whopping 16mph that I had time to notice the sun-bleached For Sale sign on it. I stopped to look, and immediately...
  28. S

    Can I raise a baby mockingbird with my baby chicks?

    After a heavy rain Friday night my daughters found this baby bird soaked, disheveled, and cowering under a bush. I'm not 100% sure what kind of bird it is but I think it's a mockingbird. I looked all over for a nest it must have fallen from, but found nothing. I put it in a cardboard box in my...
  29. S

    A simpler row maker (DIY) and a cautionary tale about UltraTow receiver hitches

    Hiller, hipper, garden bedder, rower, row maker, bed shaper, row builder, seems there an infinite number of names for the thing that makes garden rows. Usually they have two cupped disks and you use them to turn flat tilled earth into raised rows for gardening. That's the thing I'm talking...
  30. S

    A few strange notes about my Tarter (NOT County Line) tiller purchase from TSC

    The story: I borrowed a friend's tiller yesterday (Easter Sunday) to till up my garden only to find that it was broken, so I decided to purchase my own. I remembered seeing an email from Tractor Supply saying their County Line tillers were 10% off and the sale ends today. But today I had to...
  31. S

    Any good online reference for chicken coop design?

    Yes, I know that if I Google it, I'll get thousands of results for chicken coop plans and ideas. That's the problem. There are SO MANY results that sifting through them is daunting. I'm not looking for plans, and that's what 95% of the results are. I'm looking for the background concepts upon...
  32. S

    Can a carbon canister suck up dust?

    I purchased a plate compactor (Item #52313) from Northern Tool last week and I've been using it to compact my new crushed concrete driveway. I noticed today some black doodad dangling down. It has 3 ports for hoses and only 2 of them have hoses on them. I googled the P/N and figured out it is a...
  33. S

    Why do some carports and lean-tos have panels half-way up?

    I'm building a lean-to onto the side of my workshop (metal building) and looking at pictures on the internet for ideas. I notice a trend of walls on the sides of carports that start at the roof and go only half way down, and a trend of enclosed roof gables on lean-tos as well as carports, where...
  34. S

    Portland cement or other trick for turning a soup pot into a driveway?

    I've been planning a gravel driveway up to my shop, extending around the side (with a lean-to addition covering it), and turning into a fenced-in gravel yard behind the shop for my unsightly collection of half-finished projects (junk, for everyone who isn't me... it's a junkyard). In order to do...
  35. S

    LS branching out from tractors in the USA.

    Back when I was researching LS, I learned that they make lots of stuff other than tractors. Pretty much just for the Asian market though, it seems. Until yesterday I never came across anything LS except tractors. I was on a customer's site yesterday installing a control panel that I built, and...
  36. S

    What's a good semi-rigid flexible tubing for permanent outdoor use?

    I've set a pole and stretched a carrier wire from my house to my barn in anticipation of running power from the house to the barn. On the same wire I'd like to run an air line from the barn to the house (for convenient tire air in the driveway) and a water line from the house back to the barn...
  37. S

    Cost of propane

    My house is all electric and there is no natural gas utility in my area. Water heater is >10yrs old, stove is 15 years old, dryer is 10 years old, HVAC system is 20 years old and falling (arguably fallen) apart and should have been replaced years ago. I have a lot of appliance replacements on...
  38. S

    How are you billed for non-residential electricity?

    I'll try to keep the story short... I had a 30'x30' workshop built on the lot next to my house. It is 60ft from a transformer pole so I opted to install a meter can on it and let the power company worry about getting power to it because to feed it from my house service would require 400ft worth...
  39. S

    XR4140 making unsettling PTO noise

    Hello, My I have owned my brand new XR4140 just a couple of months, and I have never used the PTO. I got curious about PTO RPM for a PTO generator so I turned on the PTO for the first time, just to take some RPM measurements with a handheld tachometer. The PTO is making some unnatural noises...
  40. S

    Picked up half a megawatt worth of Caterpillar power, think I'll make a PTO generator

    I guess this will be a build thread. Living in hurricane country for the past few years with nothing but a 3,500W harbor freight generator that never works when I need it, I've been wanting a whole-home generator and been keeping my eye out for a used one. They don't come up for sale used; I...
  41. S

    Quiet compressors

    I am getting more & more sensitive to sounds, not sure why. I can handle loud noises that are continuous and/or that I control. Like the tractor, or an angle grinder. But my compressor randomly kicking in @ 80db while I'm silently working in my shop startles me like a gunshot. It's really...
  42. S

    Refurbishing two old Lincoln SP-250 MIG machines.

    I've been looking for a decent 250+A MIG machine for a couple of years now. I have a 200A TIG that suits all my needs but it's a pain in the behind to always have to TIG things what don't need TIG'in. MIG is much faster and easier to get set up and and also weld. I got spoiled at my last job...
  43. S

    Today's work of art: "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle."

    It's been my observation that when the fruits of a human endeavor are ascribed the status of "art," they are viewed through different eyes; evaluated with a different set of criteria, and a different set of rules. There is no requirement for the work to be reasonable or adhere to any man's...
  44. S

    Tiller  What's the deal with the paint on the PTO tiller from TSC?

    I stopped by Tractor Supply the other day for some fittings & misc., had some spare time so I went and looked at the tillers. Check out the paint on this tiller. What's up with that? This TSC location was built less than a year ago. This tiller looks like it's sat outside for a decade. I doubt...
  45. S

    OT: a numbers riddle

    I heard this years ago and it stumped me to the point (I'm embarrassed to admit) I had to get out (30) $1 bills on the table. It's been around forever so if you've heard it and know the answer, please try to contain yourself and let some folks chew on it before blurting it out. Here it goes: 3...
  46. S

    How do you fix ruts with a tractor?

    I rutted up over an acre of carpet grass lawn spraying for mosquitoes before it was dry enough. We were held hostage in our own house by insects. It was a dire situation. I don't feel stupid (yet) for doing it, but now I need to fix it. Most of the ruts are 1" - 3" but some are 4" - 6" deep. I...
  47. S

    I installed accessory outlets

    I sure did. And you can too. I got tired of my crappy phone draining while I do tractor work (it only takes about 4 hours to drain) so rather than replace my aged $150 phone I drilled huge holes in my brand new $24k tractor. Makes perfect sense to me. Plus now I can plug in my spotlight. They...
  48. S

    Pull from the front or the rear?

    I have two months of experience operating my new tractor. I didn't grow up around tractors so I don't know all the tips and tricks. I posted a picture on Facebook of me pulling a stuck truck out of a ditch with my tractor, and I was pulling from the drawbar. I had a couple of people comment and...
  49. S

    Operation Bloodhawk Down

    We are surrounded by rice farms so mosquitoes have always been an issue. And these aren't your average mosquitoes. Half of them are Shaggy Legged Gallinippers; prehistoric pestilence dredged up from deep within the earth and rehydrated to claim their spot at the top of the food chain - massive...
  50. S

    What happened to the AHP Alpha MIG and what's this Eastwood clone?

    A couple of years ago I was considering buying the AHP Alpha MIG 250 welder but I ended up buying a TIG instead (Eastwood TIG200). Now I'm again looking for a big MIG machine and picked up where I left off in my search 2 years ago. One of the reasons I didn't buy the AHP machine is that they...
  51. S

    Smallest/least expensive tractor with closed center hydraulics.

    I have a 40hp LS tractor (XR4140H) and it has open center hydraulics. Some of the things I want to do now and in the future would be better suited to closed center. So far my search for tractors with closed center hydraulics yields 100+hp tractors. I don't need and can't afford that. Is there...
  52. S

    Any way to improve FEL hydraulics?

    The hydraulic perfomance of my XR4140H FEL leaves room for improvement. Firstly, it doesn't seem to want to lift and curl at the same time. I use pallet forks 90% of the time and this being not an auto-levelling FEL, trying to raise/lower the forks level turns into a jaggy series...
  53. S

    Any source for drawers for DIY toolbox?

    I can expound later if needed/desired (long story), but at this moment I don't have time to go into the finer details of my plan, or the "why" behind it, but I need a toolbox configured in a manner so unconventional that nothing I can find off the shelf works for me. I need to build my own. I...
  54. S

    Can the new curved screen phones handle any abuse?

    Sorry, way off topic, but I figure most people here can relate to my hazardous (to phones) working conditions. I work in industrial settings; manufacturing facilities, oil rigs, etc. and one of the tools I use is my phone. I expect My phone to take a licking and keep on ticking. Real world...
  55. S

    Sun & weatherproof ratchet straps

    I have a pile of ratchet straps that are no good anymore because I left them out in the sun & weather and they turned brittle/flaky and I don't trust them to do their job. The last batch I bought were supposedly UV resistant (or somesuch) and they don't seem to be faring any better. I know the...
  56. S

    Simple trencher?

    I'm looking for the cheapest/simplest method or attachment for digging trenches with my 40hp tractor. I need trenches 1ft deep by 4-6" wide. My ground is black dirt, no clay, no rocks. I think something like a subsoiler would work, but from the videos I've seen, those don't lift the dirt up out...
  57. S

    Does LS have the highest rated GEL lifting capacity?

    Does LS have the highest rated FEL lifting capacity? I bought an LS XR4140 a month ago because, in the same price range, it was rated to lift 1,000+lbs more than Mahindra or Kubota with the front end loader. I planned to use it almost exclusively as an all terrain forklift, so based mainly on...
  58. S

    Predict failure/success of my concrete counterbalance

    My cousin turned up yesterday bored, wanting to get involved in whatever project I had going on. The project I was engaged in wasn't a good fit, so I decided to change gears and build a concrete counterbalance for the 3pt hitch. I normally do a fair bit of research and planning before starting a...
  59. S

    How do you talk to an XR4140?

    I got my brand new XR4140H home the other day (my very first tractor) and immediately started pulling panels off and examining the guts. I was delighted to find an actual OBD-II port on it, not the weird round connector, and even more delighted to find that my little Bluetooth ELM327 dongle...
  60. S

    Is there a *real* service manual for XR series, and what are they selling on the web?

    Hello, I'm strantor. First post here. I'm a professional electronics nerd and a hobbyist mechanic & welder. First time tractor owner. I bought an LS XR4140 two days ago and told the dealer I wanted every piece of technical documentation they had for it. They they told me that the owners manual...
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